What Attacks in France, Kuwait and Tunisia Underscore About ISIS

By

Aaron David Miller

Jun 27, 2015 7:43 am ET

One year ago this weekend, a spokesman for the extremist organization threatening Iraq announced that it would be called Islamic State and that it was proclaiming a Muslim caliphate. There is much we don’t know about ISIS’s role in Friday’s terror attacks in France, Kuwait, and Tunisia. But it’s painfully obvious that ISIS is expanding, not weakening. It has become one of the most successful terrorist enterprises in history. And Middle East dysfunction and the absence of a coherent regional or international response guarantee that it will not be defeated anytime soon.

Friday’s attacks on three continents–whether or not they were coordinated from ISIS central in Syria or Iraq–reveal the organization’s capacity to inspire and perhaps direct and plan violence.